As a teacher of Plato in Oxford's Literae Humaniores, Walter Pater was informed by philosophy from his earliest essays to his last book. The Platonism of Walter Pater examines Pater's deep engagement with Platonism throughout his career. It overturns his reputation as a superficial aesthete known mainly for his 'Conclusion' to The Renaissance to reposition his contribution to literature and the history of ideas. In his criticism and fiction, including his studies on myth, Pater was influenced by several of Plato's dialogues. Phaedrus, Symposium, Theaetetus, Cratylus, and The Republic informed his philosophy of beauty, history, myth, knowledge, ethics, language, and style. As a philosopher, critic, and artist, Plato embodied what it meant to be an author to Pater, who imitated his creative practice from vision to expression. For Pater Platonism was also a point of contact with his contemporaries, including Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde, offering a means to take new measure of their literary relationships. Using the interdisciplinary critical tools of Pater's own educational milieu which combined literature, philosophy, and classics, The Platonism of Walter Pater repositions the importance Pater's contribution to literature and the history of ideas.

ウォルター・ペイターを単なる耽美主義者と見なす通説を、本書は鮮やかに覆します。その深淵に流れるプラトニズムの血脈を解き明かすアダム・リーの筆致は、ペイターがプラトンの対話篇を血肉化し、美学や文体そのものに哲学的な命を吹き込んだ真の思想家であったことを証明します。美の探究の裏側に潜む、静謐でいて熾烈な知の闘争こそが本作の真骨頂です。 ペイターがプラトンを自らの「分身」と仰ぎ、創造の源泉とした姿は、読者の知的好奇みを激しく揺さぶります。ワイルドら同時代の巨星との連環を紐解く視座は、古典と世紀末文学が交差する瞬間の熱量を現代に蘇らせます。読後、あなたは彼の文章の中に、永遠なるイデアへの憧憬と、移ろいゆく瞬間を慈しむ崇高な葛藤を見出すことになるでしょう。